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Human skin cancer stem cells: a tale of mice and men
Author(s) -
Colmont Chantal S.,
Harding Keith G.,
Piguet Vincent,
Patel Girish K.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.108
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0625
pISSN - 0906-6705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0625.2012.01533.x
Subject(s) - skin cancer , cancer , carcinogenesis , cancer stem cell , cancer research , human skin , medicine , carcinoma , stem cell , melanoma , basal cell carcinoma , limiting , keratinocyte , pathology , immunology , oncology , basal cell , biology , cell culture , genetics , mechanical engineering , engineering
Carcinomas, cancers of epithelial tissues, are the commonest malignancies and cause the greatest cancer mortality worldwide. Among these, the incidence of keratinocyte‐derived non‐melanoma skin cancers ( NMSC ), by far the greatest, is increasing rapidly. Yet despite access to tumor tissue, acceptance of human NMSC as a model carcinoma has been hindered by the lack of a reliable xenograft model. Instead, we have relied on the murine two‐step carcinogenesis protocol as a reproducible squamous cell carcinoma ( SCC ) model, but this differs from their human counterpart in cause, site, genetic basis and biological behaviour. By xeno‐engraftment of primary human SCC , we were recently successful in demonstrating the presence of primary human SCC cancer stem cells or tumor‐initiating cells. These findings once more align the study human SCC as the archetypal carcinoma model. In this review, we describe the evidence for the existence of tumor‐initiating cells, with emphasis on skin cancer, limiting our discussions to primary human cancer studies where possible.